Email marketing is the use of email to send promotions, advertisements, newsletters and other communication to your customers and clients. Email messages may be as simple as a few lines of text or as elaborate as a full page newsletter, complete with images. Keep things simple when you're just starting out and use email services that handle most of the steps for you so that you can concentrate on the message you want to send.

Subscribers

Before you send out your first marketing message, you need a list of people to send your emails to. Only send your email marketing messages to people who voluntarily sign up to receive them or you might develop a reputation as a spammer -- someone who sends unsolicited and unwanted email. Create a place on your website for people to sign up for communication from you. If you sell products online, include in the checkout process a way for customers to opt in to future emails from your company. Make sure all of your communications include a link that people can click on to unsubscribe from your marketing.

Types

Choose what type of emails you plan to send to your subscribers. A simple text message takes up very little of your readers' time and can offer something of value such as the announcement of a sale or a coupon. An email newsletter is an effective form of marketing that can build brand loyalty by offering relevant industry information as well as news about your company. If you maintain a company blog, offer the first paragraph of new posts in a newsletter with a link to the website. Include promotions, sales and non-selling information, such as short bios of company staff or polls about an aspect of your industry.

Services

Sending out email newsletters can be complicated if you do it yourself. Use one of the many email newsletter services that handle the process for you, from subscriber list management to formatting your message. Most of the services have easy-to-use templates you can customize with your company logo and colors, and online editing programs that walk you through the process. You pick a theme, add your text and links, and the service handles the rest, including tracking statistics such as how many people click on links in your newsletter. Keep your email design simple and clean.

Frequency

There's a fine line between sending email message to your customers so often they're tempted to unsubscribe, and sending them so infrequently they forget who you are. A weekly newsletter is usually sufficient, and because it contains more than one item, you can communicate everything you need to in one email. Write a subject line that highlights something special in your newsletter and makes people want to read it, such as news of a sale. If you have a very special promotion or event coming up, send a separate email but limit those to once or twice a month.

About the Author

Since 1997, Maria Christensen has written about business, history, food, culture and travel for diverse publications, including the "Savannah Morning News" and "Art Voices Magazine." She authored a guidebook to Seattle and works as the business team lead for a software company. Christensen studied communications at the University of Washington and history at Armstrong Atlantic State University.